A geographer and social anthropologist, her interdisciplinary, policy-engaged research in Africa and beyond links environment, agriculture, health, technology and gender, with particular interests in knowledge, power and the politics of science and policy processes.

She is vice-chair of the Science Committee of Future Earth; a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-food); and was lead author of UN Women's World Survey on the Role of Women in Economic Development 2014. She co-founded the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform and was lead social scientist in the UK and WHO Ebola scientific advisory committees during 2014-15.

Books

The Politics of Green Transformations

Multiple "green transformations" are required if humanity is to live sustainably on planet Earth.

Conference sessions

Professor Melissa Leach, Director of the Institute of Development Studies, will draw on her ground-breaking work to address the multiple levels of change needed if we are to achieve genuinely "green" development.